Scholar

If you're feeling down or need a little inspiration, attend one of the banquets being held over the next month by local chapters of the National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame recognizing the Southland's top scholar-athletes. When you shake hands with one of the teenage recipients, it's a certainty that you'll be meeting someone who's going to save a life as a doctor, soldier, firefighter or police officer. You could be meeting a future judge, lawyer, scientist, councilman, teacher or entrepreneur.

When Adrianne Wadewitz became a Wikipedia contributor 10 years ago she decided to use a pseudonym, certain that fellow scholars at Indiana University would frown on writing for the often-maligned "free encyclopedia that anyone can edit. " But Wadewitz eventually came out as a Wikipedian, the term the encyclopedia uses to describe the tens of thousands of volunteers who write and edit its pages. A rarity as a woman in the male-centric Wikipedia universe, she became one of its most valued and prolific contributors as well as a force for diversifying its ranks and demystifying its inner workings.

The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching has released a report, "Scholarship Assessed: Evaluation of the Professoriate," that seeks to identify, among other things, the personal qualities that are essential in college and university professors. Below is an excerpt from the recommendations. "We propose that three characteristics merit especial consideration: integrity, perseverance and courage. . . . The foundation of academic life is integrity. . . .

We've already passed a critical eye over the report on the War on Poverty issued by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), specifically its inaccurate and undeserved drive-by attack on Medicaid. Unfortunately for Ryan, several experts on the War on Poverty have now taken their licks at the report. Doubly unfortunate for Ryan, some of them are experts whose work he cited in the report, and they say they've been misrepresented. That's important, because the goal of Ryan's report is to show that existing poverty programs are ineffective, and therefore should be changed (mostly by cutting them)

The greatest detective in the world has, for more than a century, been under the protection of Arthur Conan Doyle and that author's heirs. But one scholar believes it's time for Sherlock Holmes to be set free. Long a fixture of the popular imagination, the time may have come for him to belong to the public as well. Author and attorney Leslie S. Klinger, widely regarded as one of the foremost authorities on Sherlock Holmes, has filed suit in the U.S. District Court in the Northern District of Illinois against the Conan Doyle estate.

The TV networks could be scrambling for programming if the NFL lockout lasts into the fall, which is a good reason someone with a video camera should be showing up to the National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame scholar-athlete banquets to tape the inspiring stories of teenagers making a difference on and off the field. From Orange County to San Bernardino County, from the San Fernando Valley to the San Gabriel Valley, dozens of high school seniors are having their accomplishments recognized this month.

In its first specific accusation against a detained U.S.-based scholar, China said she has confessed to spying for foreign intelligence agencies. A Foreign Ministry spokesman refused to elaborate or say for whom Gao Zhan allegedly spied. But he rejected Washington's requests that the Chinese-born political scientist be released, saying the case was being investigated "according to law." Previously Gao was accused of endangering state security, a vague charge often used against dissidents.

Re "My Fight Against American Phantoms," Commentary, Dec. 21: Tariq Ramadan, a Muslim scholar with outstanding academic credentials, should understand America's predicament that many Muslim scholars have not rejected the 7th century ideologues of jihad, holy war and martyrdom. He claims that he believes in pluralism and equality, but he has failed to condemn the sayings of the holy text that there is no god but Allah, women are half of men, and friendship with non-Muslims is forbidden.

Michael Henry Heim, a literary translator and humble philanthropist whose teaching, activism and widely admired translations of works by such writers as Günter Grass and Milan Kundera helped bring the voices of contemporary world literature into the mainstream of English-speaking cultures, has died. He was 69. Heim, a professor and former chairman of the department of Slavic languages and literature at UCLA, died of cancer Sept. 29 at his home in Westwood, said his wife, Priscilla.

Unable to use his hands because of a childhood bout with polio, Paul K. Longmore wrote his first book by punching a keyboard with a pen he held in his mouth. It took him 10 years, and when he was done, he burned a copy in front of the Federal Building downtown. By taking a match to "The Invention of George Washington" in 1988, the scholar brought national attention to a campaign to reform Social Security policies that discourage disabled professionals from working. Some of the most restrictive penalties were soon lifted — including one preventing him from earning royalties on books — in a policy change that became known as the Longmore Amendment.

James Cahill, an art historian and curator who played an influential role in expanding the study and teaching of Chinese painting in the West before and after the opening up of U.S.-China relations in the early 1970s, died Feb. 14 at his home in Berkeley. He was 87. The cause was complications of prostate cancer, said his daughter, Sarah Cahill . A longtime professor at UC Berkeley, Cahill was a dominant scholar in his field for 50 years. In the late 1950s, he was one of a small number of Western scholars permitted access to the imperial paintings that had been evacuated to Taiwan before the Chinese mainland fell under Communist rule.

Hundreds of students paraded into a gymnasium on Saturday afternoon at USC's Galen Center, their friends and families cheering from the bleachers as ragtime music played. The Super Quiz, the final event in the Los Angeles County Academic Decathlon, was about to start. The game show-style competition requires teams of nine high school students to answer three dozen multiple-choice questions on subjects including art, economics and science. Questions were read by Fox 11 news reporter Gigi Graciette, and students had just seven seconds to punch in their answers on hand-held electronic devices.

Letterman jackets are considered so retro that some high school athletes are hesitant to be seen wearing one. But don't tell that to L.A. Cathedral soccer standout Axel Mendez, who proudly walks around campus wearing his jacket filled with patches testifying to accomplishments, from being All-Southern Section to being a scholar-athlete. It's part of a high school sports experience that he refuses to abandon at a time when other elite players in the Southern California soccer world are choosing a different path.

Robert A. Pastor, an influential scholar and policymaker who spent decades working for better inter-American relations and democracy and free elections in the Western Hemisphere, died Wednesday at his home in Washington, D.C., after a three-year battle with cancer. He was 66. His death was announced by American University, where Pastor was a professor in the School of International Service. Pastor had been President Carter's national security adviser for Latin America and the Caribbean.

January 7, 2014 | By Michael Hiltzik, This post has been corrected, as indicated below.

Under normal circumstances, an up-and-coming academic might be pleased to have his work cited by a leading politician in the heat of a major policy debate. Not so Rand Ghayad, who will shortly be receiving his Ph.D. in economics from Northeastern University, and whose research on unemployment was cited admiringly by Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) in a recent essay about why extending unemployment insurance is a bad thing. The problem, Ghayad wrote in a piece for the Atlantic, is that his research implies just the opposite . Ghayad's research indicates that employers discriminate against the long-term unemployed.

Chalmers Johnson, an influential scholar of East Asia's political economy whose seminal writings forced a reevaluation of both the Chinese Revolution and the Japanese "economic miracle," has died. He was 79. Johnson, who taught at the Berkeley and San Diego campuses of the University of California from 1962 to 1992, died Saturday of complications of long-term rheumatoid arthritis at his home in Cardiff-by-the-Sea, said his wife, anthropologist Sheila K. Johnson. The UC Berkeley-educated Johnson was the founder and president of the Japan Policy Research Institute, a 16-year-old nonprofit organization devoted to public education about Japan and its place in the world.

Bill Blackbeard, an early scholar of newspaper comics who created an indispensable archive in San Francisco that helped legitimize the study of comics in popular culture, has died. He was 84. Blackbeard died at a Country Villa nursing home in Watsonville, Calif. His March 10 death, confirmed by Social Security records became public only in late April when news of it circulated on websites devoted to comics. "It's not an understatement to say that the entire movement of looking at comics as American history and culture would be fundamentally different without Bill and his contributions," said Andrew Farago of the Cartoon Art Museum of San Francisco.

Over cappuccino at a crowded conference on real estate in one of the world's last frontier markets, one investor turned to another and said breezily, "I'm here to get rich. " They had paid more than $2,000 each to attend panels with titles like "Futurescape in Myanmar" and "Opportunities in Hotels and Resorts. " The seminar's sponsors, which included a prominent local construction firm, handed out business cards and glossy brochures highlighting the shining new condos and shopping malls they hope to build.

Reza Aslan began 2013 as an academic teaching creative writing at UC Riverside. In the summer, he published the book "Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth" and everything changed. Now Aslan is ending his wild year with a movie deal for "Zealot" as well as writing a pilot for cable TV network FX, running the "transmedia" company Boomgen Studios, working on a novel -- and trying to craft the next episode in his unorthodox life as an Internet-era public intellectual. "Zealot," which portrayed Jesus not as a divine being but as an angry rebel, had already hit bestseller lists before an interview Aslan did with Fox News made him a viral video star.